Randy Lizzio is one of those who is making his case directly to ticket buyers. Along with his wife, Cheryl, Lizzio owns and operates the Onarga Theatre in Onarga, Ill. This year, he started a fundraising drive on his website that has brought in $8,000 toward the cost of installing a $65,000 projector. Lizzio plans to start a Kickstarter campaign and host special screenings of movies from the public domain to help bolster those numbers.

“The movie theater is really the heart of this town,” Lizzio said. “I always tell people that the only times there is traffic is when the movie theater is open or when there’s a funeral... I’ll just be happy if we can pay the bills and keep the place going. That’s my attitude towards it.”

But the noose is tightening on those theaters that have yet to convert.

Michael Hurley, owns two theaters in Maine and books films for other theaters around the country. He tells TheWrap that with studios producing fewer and fewer 35mm prints, it has gotten increasingly difficult to book the latest releases. Often it means waiting longer to run a film or paying more to get a copy.

“I’ve had studios say, ‘Hey if you had digital I could give [the film] to you right now, but right now it’s not going to happen,” Hurley said.

Ultimately, Hurley decided to convert one of his theaters this year, securing a bank loan and entering into a virtual print fee agreement. He says he’s pleased with the results and with the fact that having a digital copy means that the films he shows are never scratched or damaged after making the trip to Maine.

Hurley believes that the future is bright for independent movie theaters that survive the often financially painful process of entering cinema’s digital age.

“When I bought my theater, there were no DVDs, no internet, no cell phones and no Netflix,” he said. “The movies have been counted out since radio, but the industry has just made the biggest investment in new technology since the birth of film and it’s not doing that for a business that’s on its way out.”